Deals with the devil: And here I was thinking I was one of only two or three who had questions about this peace coalition for many of the same reasons mentioned in Mark Donald's "Get On the Bus" (February 6).
Thank you, Mark. I have heard "politics makes strange bedfellows" until I want to puke. So do money, gross stupidity and naïveté.
In the pursuit of wealth for the wealthy, the leaders of our country continue to crawl into bed with the likes of Saddam Hussein and Manuel Noriega and then use up our young people to stifle their built bastards when they begin to act like bastards.
Strange bedfellows? No kidding.
And, speaking of naïveté, I think my sister and brother progressives should understand deals with the devil.
Sherril Blackmon
Irving
Not the ANSWER: Before I comment on Mark Donald's article on the anti-war march, the political columnist in me left over from my stint at SMU's Daily Campus must declare my biases first. I'm about as left as they get, hoping for a two-state solution in Israel, deeply opposed to corporate pay-for-play politics in these United States and likely to draw the ugly conclusions between our own unelected dictator and several others around the world.
And even with all these "granola" credentials, I find it hard to call Donald's article anything other than balanced, nuanced and extremely well-written. He has done what so few journalists in America, let alone Texas (don't even mention Dallas), ever do, namely, reach out to as many different people as possible to try to understand the deeper story behind the headline.
I remember James K. Hopkins, the chair of History at SMU who Donald mentioned in his article, sitting me down once to talk about my future. The man knew me only through my writings and still took the time to give me some solid advice about where to go and how the world could use some change. And I can promise you that if I had been at that rally he walked out on, he'd have had to beat me to the door.
ANSWER is not the answer and neither is the Nation of Islam, but it bears noting that while these demonstrations going on now may not be as big as Vietnam's, they are the broadest and most mainstream (also the most prescient, considering how long it took American citizens of conscience to get off their ass for Vietnam). Yeah, there's a lot of cranks, and sure, some of them are doing the best job of getting the word out. But folks wouldn't be showing up if they didn't have an abiding sense of the need for peace, justice and equality. A bunch of Stalin apologists and anti-Semites aren't going to mislead the good people of the United States and the world any more than the right-wing corporate lackeys currently claiming the moral high ground.
Donald himself went out of that sense, including a healthy curiosity that's the sign of a good citizen. The question has always been whether you believe you have a duty to your fellow man and if you believe your fellow man is fundamentally good. A great chunk of people who agree with those premises were in Washington, sprinkled with the same number of nuts you might run into at your job or one of Dallas' half-dozen tax-money-bought and privately owned stadiums. If you don't believe me, then I encourage you even more strongly to go and see for yourself what Mark Donald so clearly observed and heard from the mouth of a 10-year-old with more moral clarity than those holding the reins.
Jonathan Trammell
Dallas
Giving Away the Farm
Right and wrong: In regard to your story about Samuell Farm ("Farm Teams," by Charles Siderius, February 6), I just wanted to let you know how I felt. I'm 11 years old and I have been going to Samuell Farm since I was little. I really don't agree with the idea of tearing it down to build soccer fields and a parking lot. That's just wrong!
Dr. Samuell left that land to the city with the intention that it was to stay a farm for children and adults to enjoy, and for the city to just decide that they want to tear it down is uncalled for! Some people may think that I'm just a stupid little kid, but I'm not. I understand more than you would think (most kids do), and I know the difference between right and wrong.
I would really like to give the person in charge of all this a piece of my mind! Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Alexandra Wadsworth
Dallas
Bollywood Confidential
Indian connection: This is in response to "Bolly Wanna Poppadum?" by Robert Wilonsky (Full Frontal, February 5). For the uninitiated into Bollywood movies, it makes interesting reading. Even the insert of Bollywood Hollywood's ad looks appealing. It is a pity even today that the mainstream media don't know what's happening with smaller ethnicities. There are more than 50 stores in North Texas that sell/rent videos and DVDs of Indian movies--movies in about 15 languages. Videos of Hollywood and British origins with any Indian connection are available even before wide release on the big screen. Check into any of these stores and you will be shocked! Bollywood Hollywood was a very badly made movie, and its picture with the article will only further distort Indian cinema. Another disaster was a recent remake of Groundhog Day--Kaante, which, surprisingly, occupied the 20th slot in weekend collections in the United States ($430,000 from 26 screens--average $16,384 per screen).
Abraham Thomas
Dallas